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ETURN OF POLISH CITIZENS 



HEARING 

BEFORE THE 

COMMITTEE ON MILITARY AFFAIRS 

HOUSE OF REPEESENTATIVES 

SIXTY-SIXTH CONGRESS 
SECOND SESSION 



STATEMENTS OF 



HON. NEWTON D. BAKER, Secretary of War 
HON. JOHN C. KLECZKA, M. C. 




WASHINGTON 
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 
171680 1920 



HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. 
Committee on Military Affairs. 



SIXTY-SIXTH CONGRESS, SECOND SESSION. 



JULIUS KAHN, 
DANIEL R. ANTHONY, Jr., Kansas. 
JOHN C. McKENZIE, Illinois. 
FRANK L. GREENE, Vermont. 
JOHN M. MORIN, Pennsylvania. 
THOMAS S. CRAGO. Pennsylvania. 
HARRY E. HULL, Iowa. 
ROLLIN B. SANFORD, New York. 
W. FRANK JAMES. Michigan. 
CHARLES C. KEARNS, Ohio. 
ALVAN T. FULLER, Massachusetts. 
JOHN F. MILLER, Washington. 



California, Chairman. 

S. HUBERT DENT, Jr., Alabama. 
WILLIAM J. FIELDS, Kentuclcy. 
PERCY E. QUIN, Mississippi. 
CHARLES POPE CALDWELL, New York. 
JAMES W. WISE, Georgia. 
RICHARD OLNEY, Massachusetts. 
THOMAS W. HARRISON, Virginia. 
HUBERT F. FISHER. Tennessee. 



Howard F. Sedgwick, Clerk. 



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RETURN 



OF POLISH CITIZENS. 



Committee on Military Affairs, 

House of Representatives, 

Thursday, February 26, 1920. 
The Committee this day met, Hon. JuHus Kahn (chairman), 
presiding. 

The Chairman. I introduced at the request of the War Depart- 
ment House Joint Resukition 291, authorizing the Secretary of War 
to bring l)ack on Army transports from Danzig, PoLand, persons of 
Pohsh origin who were engaged in tlie war on the side of the alHed 
and associated powers. 

The Secretary of War is with us this morning, and we \\'\\\ be very 
glad to liear what he desires to submit in support of the legishition. 

STATEMENT OF HON. NEWTON D. BAKER, SECRETARY OF 
WAR, ACCOMPANIED BY BRIG. GEN. FRANK T. HINES, 
CHIEF OF TRANSPORTATION. 

Secretary Baker. Mr. Chairman, I woukl Hke to call to your 
attention at the outset to a difference between the Senate resolution 
and the House resolution. 

The Chairman. Mr. Secretary, I believe the Senate has passed a 
similar resolution. 

Secretary Baker. Yes. 

The Chairman. I would therefore suggest that we take up the 
Senate resolution. 

Secretary Baker. There is just a difference of one word in the 
two resolutions. 

The Chairman. What is that difference? 

Secretary Baker. On page 2 you will find the House resolution 
reads, ''Bring back to the United States from Danzig, Poland, such 
persons of Polish origin," while the Senate resolution reads, ''such 
residents of the United States of Polish origin. ' ' That limits the 
persons whom we may return to persons who have been residents 
in the United States, so that we do not bring in any other Polish 
persons. Mr. Wadsworth asked permission to make that change 
before he introduced the resolution in the Senate, and the resolution 
had already been introduced in the House. 

The Chairman. We will consider the Senate resolution. 

Secretary Baker. Then it does not need any change, so far as I 
know. 

Mr. Hull. Would there not be some danger of too close a defini- 
tion of the word "residents"? 

Secretary Baker. I think not; it does not require citizenship. 



A EETUEN OF POLISH CITIZENS. 

Mr. Hull. Somc^of those people unquestionably had not been here 
very long. 

Secretary Bakee. I should think most of them had been here right 
along, because none of them went until after we had been in the war 
and there had been no immigration into this country from Poland 
for some time prior to the time when we entered the war. I suspect 
they had been here at least three or four years. 

In general, the situation is this: After we went into the war Mr. 
Paderewski, who was at that time acting as agent for Polish interests 
in this countr}^, came to the War Department and asked whether we 
would be sympathetic with their collecting Polish citizens who were 
beyond the draft age in the United States to be formed into a Polish 
legion to fight in the French Army on the western front as a Polish 
legion. He said the French Government was in sympathy with the 
idea and also the British Government, and he wondered whether we 
would have any objection. I told him if the international matters 
were arranged to the satisfaction of the State Department, the War 
Department would have no particular objection. The State De- 
partment gave its consent after consultation with the British and the 
French Governments, as I understand it, and the War Department 
then placed at the disposal of Mi\ Paderewski Fort Niagara, which 
was at that time no longer used as a mobilization place for our men, 
and at that place and in Canada a very large number of Poles were 
gotten, by voluntary enlistment, to become members of a Polish 
legion. 

We made no objection of any sort to that; it cost the Government 
nothing. We allowed them to mobilize, and I think about 5,000 
did mobilize at Fort Niagara and in Canada, and then those who 
were at Fort Niagara went to Canada and Great Britain carried 
them to France in her ships and the French clothed them and 
arnied them and formed them into a Pohsh legion, and that Polish 
army, I think, at one time had as many as 40,000 persons of Polish 
origin who were fighting on the French front as a Polish force. 

After the armistice the so-called Polish legion, known as Gen. 
Haller's army, went to Poland to assist in the settlement of the 
Polish boundary c[uestion, a"nd .that sort of thing. 

Now, the number of Poles in Poland who fire residents of the 
United States, and some of them citizens of the United States, is 
between ten and twelve thousand. They have been separated from 
the Polish army; they are discontented and want to come home. 
Their discontent has "gotten so active once or twice that they have 
almost had an insm-rection growing out of their unfounded belief 
that the Polish Government is keeping them there for its own uses as 
a part of its own force instead of letting them come back to America. 

The Polish Government is very anxious to have them come back 
to the United States and has undertaken to carry them from their 
places of campment to Danzig if the United States will bring them 
home in its transports. 

The State Department suggested the wisdom of our doing that, 
but we have no legal authority to do it unless you give it to us. 

The proposition is to divert our transports, which already go to 
Antwerp to carry supplies and reinforcements or replacement troops 
to the Coblentz occupation army — to divert those transports to 
Danzig and let them on the return journey bring a load of these 



RETURX OF POLISH CITIZEXS. O- 

Polish residents of the United States, and when they get to New 
York City the Pohsh Government, through its agents here, will see 
to their railroad transportation back to the places of their origin 
and distribute them throughout the United States. 

The Chairman. What city in Europe is our Government now 
using as a base of supplies '( 

Secretary Baker. Antwerp, 

The Chairman, So that the Army transports would have to go 
from Antvv- erp to Danzig ? 

Secretary Baker. Yes. 

The Chairman. And then bring these men back home ? 

Secretary Baker. Yes. If you want to know the cost 

The Chairman (interposing). We would like to have that. 

Secretary Baker. Gen. Hines has worked that out very care- 
fuUv. We have in our Atlantic transport fleet ships with an aggre- 
gate capacity of 14,000 persons, so that as this number of Poles is 
between 10,000 and 12,000, it would roughly require each of our 
transports to make one round trip to Danzig from Antwerp, 
which amounts to the diversion of our entire fleet for one trip to 
Danzig on its return journey to the United States. Gen, Hines has 
figured the cost of that diversion, and that w^ould amount to 182,000. 
That is the gross cost, including everything except the food of the 
men on the way back to this country, which would cost about S55,000. 

The Chairman. Would it be cheaper to send one ship like the 
Leviathan, which can carry 10,000 men and bring them all back in 
one ship ? 

Secretary Baker. That will be impracticable for two reasons: 
In the first place, the Leviatfiari is out of commission, and it would 
require getting a naval crew, which is a very difficult organization 
to get together for just one trip, and it would be very expensive. Then 
in the second place the Leviathan could not go into Danzig Harbor. 

These vessels have to go through the Kiel Canal, and the Leviathan 
could not do that. She could not go into Danzig, either. We have 
no large ships, larger than those we are now using, that could profit- 
ably be recommissioned and be into the service for such an enterprise. 

The Chairman. How many ships would you use for this purpose ? 

Secretary Baker. Eight. I can give their names and their ca- 
pacity, if you desire that. 

The Chairman. We would like to have that. 

Secretary Baker. They are the Antigone, with a capacity of 2,793 ; 
the Buford, with a capacity of 970; the Kilpatrick, witn a capacity of 
947; the Northern Pacific, with a capacity of 2,316; the Pocahontas, 
with a capacity of 1,877; the Powhatan, with a capacity of 2,717; and 
the Prince Matoyke, with a capacity of 3,207. That is an aggregate 
capacity of 14,827, which is more than we will need, so that it might 
be that one of those ships would not have to make the trip. 

Mi-. McKenzie. $82,000 would cover the expense of coal and sub- 
sistence ? 

Secretary Baker. Not subsistence; that covers the coal and the 
crew cost; that is, the wages for the number of days involved in this 
diverted journey, the round trip from Antwerp to Danzig. It covers 
everything except the cost of subsistence, which w^ould be 55 cents a 
day for each person, which would amount to between $55,000 and 
$60,000 in addition to the $82,000, 



6 EETUR2T OF POLISH CITIZENS. 

The Chairman. How long does it take for a transport to go from 
Antwerp to Danzig ? 

Secretary Baker. The fastest of our ships, the Northern Pacific, 
would make the romid trip in four days, and the slowest ship would 
make the round trip in seven days. I ought to add to this that we 
have the money now, and it requires no appropriation of any kind. 

Mr. Miller. You say the ship would have to go through the Kiel 
Canal. Wliy is that? ' 

Secretary Baker. In order to get to Danzig. 

Mr. Miller. Why is that ? 

Secretary Baker. They would not take the other route because 
of the mine fields. 

Mr. Miller. You spoke of it being impracticable to use the Levia- 
than because the ships have to go through the Kiel Canal. 

Secretary Baker. On account of the mine fields. 

Mr. Miller. Is there not an opening through the strait? 

Gen. HiNES. There is an opening, but little traffic goes through 
there except that which is convoyed. When we sent the Biiford 
there, because of the mine fields, we had her preceded by a destroyer 
to convoy her through the course now open. The German mine fields 
are practically all intact at the present time. 

Mr. Miller. Would this fleet have to be convoyed ? 

Gen. HiNES. Not to Danzig. 

Mr. Miller. Wilhelmshaven is the eastern point? 

Gen. HiNEs. Wilhelmshaven is the eastern point. 

Mr. Miller. Will this fleet have, to be convoyed from Wilhelms- 
haven to Danzig? 

Gen. HiNEs. No, sir; not if it goes through the Kiel Canal. But 
if it takes the outer route, which is 1,060 miles against 734 miles 
through the Kiel Canal, it would have to be convoyed. 

The Chairman. Going through Skager Rak and Kattegat? 

Gen. HiNEs. Yes, sir. 

Mr. Miller. Are there any tolls to pay in going through there now ? 

Gen. HiNEs. Yes. 

Mr. Miller. To whom would we pay those tolls ? 

Gen. HiNES. It is in the hands of a commission. 

Mr. Miller. There is nothing in the resolution showing that these 
Poles to be returned were former residents of the United States. 

Secretary Baker. It is in the Senate resolution. 

Mr. Miller. Are these former Polish citizens, or just residents? 

Secretary Baker. Some residents and some citizens. Many of 
them have their families here, and many of them left jobs here. 
They were all men outside of the limits of our draft age who went 
to fight on the western front in France and who fought there until 
the end of the war. 

Mr. Miller. There is nobody to be returned except those men 
who went from this country over there? 

Secretary Baker. That is right. 

Mr. Miller. Nobody else ? 

Secretary Baker. Nobody else. 

Mr. McKenzie. Mr. Secretary, I am interested in the statement 
about the German mine fields. How does it happen that those fields 
are still afloat there ? Why have they not been taken out ^ 



RETUEX OF POLISH CITIZENS, 7 

Secretary Baker. The treaty imposes upon Germany the obh- 
gation of taking up the mines and destroying them and indicating 
where they are, doing that work under the supervision of the aHiecl 
naval commanders, but they have not gotten along with it. 

Gen. HiNEs. The courses are very well mapped out, but they 
are very narrow. The positions of the mine fields are very defi- 
nitely known. The German information was very accurate, but 
apparently they have not reached the point of taking them up. 

Mr. McKenzie. It seems to me that is a very important matter. 

Gen. HiNES. Yes. However, the job which was of greater im- 
portance was the removal of the allied mine barage in the North 
Sea, which has just recently been completed, and I have no doubt 
from now on progress will be made very rapidly on the other work. 

I would like to say in connection with the Leviathan that some 
time ago the Leviathan was returned to the Shipping Board for the 
purpose of refitting and cjuickly placing her in condition for com- 
mercial service between New York and probably Hamburg. All 
the troop fittings were taken off the Leviathan and considerable 
work has been done toward reconditioning her. Now to ec[uip the 
Leviathan to carry 10,000 men and recrew her and send her over 
would cost more than this entire fleet. 

Mr. Miller. She carries a crew of about 2,000 men ? 

Gen. HiNEs. Yes; a naval crew of 2,200 men and a civilian crew 
of about 1,500 men. 

Mr. !MiLLER. The largest number of troops she carried at one time 
was 14,000, was it not ? 

Gen. HiNES. No, sir; the greatest number of troops we ever placed 
aboard the Leviathan was 10,200, and with the crew there was a total 
of 13,000 and some huncbed people on board. 

The Chairman. I understand that the mines in the North Sea that 
were laid by our Government in order to form the barrage at the 
north end have been removed by our Navy. 

Secretary Baker. Admiral Strauss was in charge of the work of 
taking them up. 

The Chairman. So we have performed our part of the inter- 
national work ? 

Secretary Baker. Yes. 

]\Ir. Hull. Mr. Secretary, I am still inclined to think that when we 
define who is to come back we ought to be more definite than even 
the wording of the Senate resolution. I may be wrong about it, but 
I am inclined to think that when we go on the floor of the House 
we will have to do a lot of explaining as to what is meant by the 
expression "resident of the United States." 

Unquestionably in 12,000 people there are a great many people 
who could not come under that if you gave it a technical definition, 
and the Comptroller of the Treasury is inclined to be technical at 
times and so to upset what Congress wants to have done. What we 
want to do, I think, is the same as you want to do, to provide for the 
return of anyone who was living in the United States at the out- 
break of the war and who went over there and fought on the side 
of the Allies. 

Of course, my thought is this, that a good many people come here 
and they never live anywhere long enough to establish a residence. 
They move about a good deal. They may have lived here four or 



O EETUEX OF POLISH CITIZEiSTS. 

five years, but never lived in one place long enough to establish a 
residence anywhere. 

Secretary Baker. I do not think there is any practical difficulty, 
because the very persons we are discussing are not a contingent of 
Gen. Haller's army and they are separated from everybody else, in 
a particular group, and the Polish Government has agreed to release 
them so that they may come back to the United States. 

Mr. Hull. There would not be any chance of people in Poland 
who had never been in this country being in that army? 

Secretary Baker. Not the slightest. There may well be some 
persons in Poland who have previously lived in America not a part 
of this army whom we might desire to be brought back also, but 
they would not be included in this class. 

Mr. Hull, They would not include anybody except those in this 
particular army, even though they might want to come back ? 

Secretary Baker. Just those included in this army. 

Mr. Miller. Mr. Secretary, I am interested in the method or 
means of establishing the identification of these men. How is it 
possible if replacement troops out of Poland have been filtered into 
this unit, to identify them as having come from the United States ? 

Secretary Baker. Their military records are all perfectly complete. 
They went from the United States in companies, were formed in 
companies and regiments, and their officers were people from the 
United States, in large part. They got some French officers on the 
other side, but when they went to Poland they got their own officers, 
and still have. 

Mr. Miller. Of course, replacement troops have been filtered into 
this unit { 

Secretary Baker. The Polish Government, I am sure, could be 
trusted to take care of that. 

Mr. Miller. They disclaim any right to hold these men? 

Secretary Baker. Yes. 

Mr. McKenzie. As a matter of fact, the Polish Government was 
not in existence wiien these men went over there, was it? 

Secretary Baker. No Polish Government was in existence wdien 
they went to Poland, but the provisional republican government 
of Poland had been formed and they went over to help the provi- 
sional government of Poland which was then operating practically 
under the direction of the Supreme War Council. 

Mr. McKinzie. But it had not been recognized by our Govern- 
ment ? 

Secretaiy Baker. I am not certain of that; but it was early 
recognized. One of the 14 points in the President's collection of 
14 terms of peace was a free and autonomous Poland with access 
to the sea, and I think Poland was recognized almost immediately 
upon the formation of the provisional government. Tliese people 
up to that time had been in France. 

The Chairmax. Mr. Kleczka is interested in this resolution for 
the return of the Polish soldiers, and desires to make a short state- 
ment to the committee in reference to it. We will be glad to hear 
you now, Mr. Kleczka. 



RETURN OF POLISH CITIZENS. 9 

STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN C. KLECZKA. A REPRESENTA- 
TIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF WISCONSIN. 

Mr. Kleczka. Mr. Chairman, I will supplement briefly the state- 
ment of the Secretary of War. 

In this Polish Army which fought under Gen. Haller in France 
there are 108,000, so-called Polish Americans recruited from this 
country, Canada, South America and other countries. There are 
24,600 recruited from the United States, and of the 24,600 recruited 
here, 15 per cent are American citizens who were not subject to the 
draft or were rejected because of physical disc^ualification, 20 per 
cent were declarants and 65 per cent were aliens. 

I know some of the hardships of individual cases, inasmuch as I 
was Government appeal agent during the war. In many of these 
cases these declarants and citizens of the United States who were 
ineligible to join our forces because of physical deficiencies, were 
married men and others had dependents, nevertheless they joined 
the Polish army. Their families were taken care of b}- patriotic 
organizations so that they would not suffer while the men were 
away. 

The 12,000 men who are now in a concentration camp near 
Warsaw are, according to the best information I have, soldiers who 
have families here, a wife or children or other dependents. The 
other ten or twelve thousand are still in the Polish Army on the eastern 
front fighting the Bolshevists. These 12,000 men are released from 
service and have been for the last 4 months, and the percentage of 
the 12,000 runs about the same as that of the 24,600, 15 per cent 
citizens, 20 per cent declarants, and 65 per cent aliens. 

The Chairman. Can you tell us how long the aliens have been 
resident in this country, on the average ? 

Mr. Kleczka. I coulcl not give you that, but this 65 per cent of the 
24,600 were all subjects of Germany; they were born in Germany or 
Austrian Poland and being subjects of Germany or Austria could not 
enlist in our forces. But those men who were citizens were rejected 
because of their age or physical disqualification, and they immediately 
joined this volunteer force. As to the time or length of their residence 
in the United States, I could not give you that. 

The situation is serious. Here is a copy of a telegram which was 
sent to the Polish National Alliance of America, dated Skierniewice, 
February 16, 1920, which says: 

Demobilized soldiers mostly fathers of families waiting 4 months for transportation. 
Please inform interested organizations and take care in that matter at lioth Govern- 
ments. 

In the name of demobilized adjutants, 

DrETIEWICZ — LUTER — KuLESXA. 

These men were supported when they were in the Polish Army on 
the western front by the French Government, and their families here 
were taken care of by patriotic organizations. These are about the 
only facts I can add to what the Secretary said. 



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